Mitsugirlys STAR end of the world/pre-Christmas cruise detailed review & pictorial

[mitsugirly]

I approached one of the ladies at the bar and ask what we needed to do for our ride back. She told me that we would have to tell our waiter when we would like to go back and they would call us a cab. I turned around and there was Carlos. I told him we would probably be ready in about a half hour.

 

 

Once I told Sakari that we were going to be getting ready to leave, she had to take another quick dip in the pool to finish out the day here. (Of course)

 

 

 

I packed everything up and we headed for the hut. It sprinkled for about 2 minutes flat and then stopped. But it was still getting very windy out. I headed for the hut about 10 minutes early so that I could take a few pictures of the entrance because I did not get any when we first arrived. But, as soon as we walked up to the hut, Carlos was telling us that our cab was waiting for us. We started walking toward the cab and I was trying to take some pictures and he kept saying “this way maam” like I was to hurry up. He pointed several times and kind of rushed us in to the cab so I wasn’t really able to take pictures like I wanted to. I’m not sure what the rush was for. There was a few other people that were standing there waiting on a cab that could have taken that one before us. It was only 2:30pm and we had plenty of time to get back to the port. This was the only picture I managed to get before leaving.

 

[mitsugirly]

On the way out, in the cab, I tried taking a picture of the entrance out of the back window of the cab:

 

 

 

 

7 ships in port...this was the taxi line up on the way back. We rode back with another family that was on the Allure and was dropped off at the port right before ours. (The reason for so many cabs headed the opposite way that we were when I took this picture)

 

 

Remember how I wondered if they celebrated Christmas in Mexico? Well there was an entire block that they were setting up and “Christmas Village” and it was beautiful. Our cab driver was zooming by and this was all I could get of it after fumbling for my camera that I had slid back in to my bag.

 

 

 

 

There were so many horse and buggy rides on the street on the way back. Do you know how impossible it is to snap a picture of them as you are zooming by? I finally gave up because I was getting nothing but wheels, or a horse head, or just the driver…then I decided to try to take one last picture out of the front window (yes, I was in the back seat).

 

 

 

We finally arrived at the Punta Laguna pier after a short 20 minute ride:

 

[mitsugirly]

We were let out on the street below where it’s an easy return back to the ship compared to getting out of the terminal. You usually take the escalators up to the second floor and walk across the street bridge and back down to where you check in with security to go down the pier. However, this time, the escalators were not working and we had to walk up them instead. No biggie for us, but we got behind an older gentleman that had a cane and was struggling to get up and was going very slow. I felt so bad for him. Working in the healthcare field, I know a big percentage of the elderly have had knee or hip replacements and for some reason that was all I could think of at the moment while I watched him struggle to get up the steps.

 

The view once we made it to the top:

 

 

Anyone that has been to this pier would know about these statues….LOL Raise your hand if you know what they do…

 

 

 

 

A view of the Pearl and the Star and the Dawn at the pier as we come down the next escalator..that happen to be working.

 

 

I swear every time we come back from Cozumel and I want to take pictures of the NCL ships at the pier, there is ALWAYS some type of small boat on the other side of the pier blocking my view. I just can’t win at this.

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

This is by far my favorite port to return back to because NCL knows how to throw a party in Cozumel. They always have the pier lined with the employees from both ships, dancing and singing, playing the music and really getting the crowd pumped up on their walk back. I love this part. Someone always dances with Sakari and she loves it. We are getting closer…

 

 

 

There’s my girls. Sitting side by side. The Star that we were sailing on and the Pearl the one we sailed on last. The Dawn we are going on next.

 

 

Last time we were in port, we were on the Pearl and sitting beside the Spirit, which was the one we were on the cruise before that. You see the pattern? Every time we are here the ship we were on the last time is there with us. How neat?

 

 

Then we finally make it around the corner…and…….are you ready to party?????

 

Wait…what? Where’s the party? Are you serious? My favorite part of returning and there is NO ONE HERE! What is going on? I was so sad. It had gotten really chilly outside and VERY windy. I guess maybe they decided not to do it after all. Darn! We were pretty much racing to get on the ship because at this point we were freezing. The wind and our cold wet sandy bodies just was not mixing well…even with towels wrapped around us.

 

 

 

So, up the walkway we went to check in. People in front of us, people behind us. Then all of a sudden everyone comes racing out…the employees, forming a line, the music starts blarring and the dancing starts. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I was starring at my husband like “Please can we just go back and walk down the line again now?” But I don’t think he got the hint and kept pressing forward. So now I know…the party starts at 3:30 and ends at 4:30pm at the “all aboard” time. I WILL know this next time and I WILL be there at 3:35pm!! (or later).

 

We checked in with our keycards and I immediately started to head to deck 7 so that we could look over and watch the party. We ran in to Pedro who was dressed up in his clown outfit and had a shirt on that said…yep, you guessed it “Vote for Pedro”. I ask to take a picture of him and you could tell he was in a hurry to get outside for the welcome back party, but he’s so nice and he stopped and posed, said hello and didn’t rush us.

 

 

By the time we made it up to deck 7, Pedro was already outside with the crowd. How’d he do that? He was taken the steps all the way down and he had these huge flipo shoes on.

 

 

I took a few pictures of the party happening down at the pier without me:

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

The party was still going on and things had picked up quite a bit.

 

 

This was the actual video that I took while we were going up the walkway to the ship. You ALWAYS knew when something was about to start because they played the NCL theme song at that time. Whether you are walking up the walkway to get on the ship, at the beginning of a show, around the ship, at the pool. They were always playing their theme song.

 

 

 

***Disclaimer, I did not take the next video. Someone on my roll call did and can take credit for them, but it was the perfect example of what you can expect from you welcome back party!

 

 

 

 

At that moment, someone must have known I was pretty upset that I was missing the action below and I was given a sign that everything was going to be just fine:

 

[Ron_L]

I'm sorry that you ran into that "freakish lady" and the unruly kids! the day that we were at Nachi was much quieter. it was our group of 12 plus to other couples and that was it.

 

We also abandoned the beach fairly quickly for the not-so-hot tub (I was wondering at the flow over design, too) and spent most of the afternoon there.

 

mitsugirly - I see in your signature you are going on the Jewel - what is the date of your sailing? (I'm too tired to figure out what 11 months, 3 weeks, and 1 day is!).

 

I am 95% sure that we are going to be on the Jewel December 8, 2013.

 

My wife and I will be on the Jewel for the December 8th sailing. If you decide to join us there is a small, but growing roll call thread tht has been started...

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1709739

[johnjovi]

We will be on the week after that. :D I have finals the week of the 8th. I think our sail date is the 15th or 16th.

 

Darn - I would have LOVED to meet you and your family - you really know how to enjoy every aspect of your cruise! :D:D

 

My wife and I will be on the Jewel for the December 8th sailing. If you decide to join us there is a small, but growing roll call thread tht has been started...

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1709739

 

Thanks Ron (neighbor BTW - we are in Naperville!) - we will join the roll call when I book it for sure!

[Ron_L]

Thanks Ron (neighbor BTW - we are in Naperville!) - we will join the roll call when I book it for sure!

 

I didn't notice that :o

[spacewoman]

Great review!

 

We were on the sailing where we bumped explorer of the seas. I do not recall the issues you encountered and I would encourage you to write NCL about it. They welcome letters from their guests. I've noticed menu changes the last few cruises and wonder if this is not creating a quality problem because the chefs are not used to what they are making??

 

I wonder if you may find the Jewel to your liking, more so than Star. It does not have an atrium though. Coming from CCL it was weird not to see it. I found the layout on Jewel better, but that is just my opinion. Your daughter might enjoy the whole Nickelodeon adventure to her liking as well!

 

Wish I was on a cruise right now!!!

 

By the way, you do NOT look old enough to be a Grandma either!

 

Glad you enjoyed your cruise

 

Kathy

[mitsugirly]

I'm sorry that you ran into that "freakish lady" and the unruly kids! the day that we were at Nachi was much quieter. it was our group of 12 plus to other couples and that was it.

 

We also abandoned the beach fairly quickly for the not-so-hot tub (I was wondering at the flow over design, too) and spent most of the afternoon there.

 

 

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one that didn't like the beach and had issues. I just wonder why it's not mentioned more on here. I don't think I have ever read that before (about it being hard to walk in the sand).

 

 

 

Darn - I would have LOVED to meet you and your family - you really know how to enjoy every aspect of your cruise! :D:D

 

 

 

Aww thanks! We do like to enjoy ourselves. :D

[mitsugirly]

Great review!

 

We were on the sailing where we bumped explorer of the seas. I do not recall the issues you encountered and I would encourage you to write NCL about it. They welcome letters from their guests. I've noticed menu changes the last few cruises and wonder if this is not creating a quality problem because the chefs are not used to what they are making??

 

I wonder if you may find the Jewel to your liking, more so than Star. It does not have an atrium though. Coming from CCL it was weird not to see it. I found the layout on Jewel better, but that is just my opinion. Your daughter might enjoy the whole Nickelodeon adventure to her liking as well!

 

Wish I was on a cruise right now!!!

 

By the way, you do NOT look old enough to be a Grandma either!

 

Glad you enjoyed your cruise

 

Kathy

 

Oh wow, on the Star when it bumped the Explorer. That would have been crazy. I watched the video that was posted on here from the guy that video taped everything. He acted so cool and calm. I think I would have been a little more "worried" and not as calm. Yikes. But the Star still has her battle scars. :D

 

I'm honestly not a complainer...AT ALL. I LOVE NCL and I cruise exclusively with NCL (I just can’t pass up the cruise certificates rewards deal and I’m working my way up the latitudes members scale) The complaints I have are not really complaints…just observations. I can’t imagine the staff not knowing about them since they are the one’s having to clean and repair them. Others have not noticed some of the things I have mentioned, I’m not sure if they aren’t “stepping” in the spots I was in or using the restrooms I was in. I’m just not sure. It would be neat to see someone going on the Star coming up to see if they go to the same place and find what I found. Maybe they have it fixed by now. I’m not sure. They do seem to fix things really quick and I love that about NCL. Always working and cleaning the ships to keep them in tip-top shape. :)

 

 

I didn’t realize they had changed their menus recently. Hmmm. I know some of the things that I had ate, I have had on the other ships and it was good. Other things that I didn’t like the way it was made, I don’t think there could be an improvement because it just didn’t go together (like the philly sandwich with gravy on it????). Either way, no matter what, you WON’T go hungry on any of them. If there’s something you don’t like, there’s always something else to choose from. No worries. I gained 7 pounds. LOL They must have some good food somewhere on the ship.

 

 

We have been on the Pearl (which is a Jewel class ship) and we liked her, but after that cruise, the Pearl was our least favorite…and I have to say this because of the “looks”…meaning no huge atrium as you walk in. Remember I’m about that WOW factor and love huge atriums. That was one of the main reasons I picked the Star. I knew she had a huge soaring Atrium. We picked the Dawn for our next cruise because she is the sister ship of the Star and I know she has that atrium as well.

 

 

I know we’ll like the Jewel just because of the Nickelodeon. Sakari is going to LOVE LOVE LOVE that. I wish they had it on all of the ships!

 

 

I wish I was done with this review so I could start working on the planning stages of my next during my “off” time from school. I only have 1 week left and then back to school I go. EEKKK :eek:

 

 

 

Thanks for the “Grandma” comment. (blushing) :o

Edited January 5, 2013 by mitsugirly

[mitsugirly]

After watching the crowd dancing and having the best coming back party without me, we decided to go up on the top deck in the front and watch from there the “sail away”.

 

The clouds were looking gloomy and I was taking pictures because I like gloomy looking cloudy pictures. I just think it makes things interesting.

 

 

 

 

We watched as some of the other ships from the International port pull out together. I know Allure was one of them, another RCL ship and a Carnival ship. It was pretty.

 

 

Sailing off in to the sunset:

 

 

[mitsugirly]

The next video I have to share with you because it is HILARIOUS. My daughter was sitting on the chair in front of me and she was singing her own made up song about the day. Telling the ships to "get out the way" (because we were leaving) and singing about all of the animals she had seen that day...saying the Jaguars and cats...blah blah blah...then something happens and it completely cracked me up and I GOT IT ON VIDEO. :D

 

 

Here's the video:

 

After that, this is the "look" she gave me (it was kind of that, is that going to happen again look...and yes, yes it did...several times):

 

 

 

I had to take a few pictures of the Pearl as we pulled out of port, since she was parked right next to us.

 

 

 

And the Dawn in front of us:

 

And both of them together as we moved away and said goodbye to them:

 

 

Here is another video (link) that someone from our roll call took of the Pearl acting like they were pushing our ship out of port. I wish I would have known this was going on. I was standing on that side all the way at the top taking pictures of the Pearl herself.

 

[gambee]

That video is too funny, thanks for sharing it. :)

[mitsugirly]

I’m going to backtrack for a moment to the port in Cozumel when we were shopping. I totally forgot to add this in since we took off last night and went to the Monster Truck Jam and I was side tracked.

 

Every time we are in Cozumel, on the way back to the ship, we stop at this souvenir shop in port. It’s there on the 2nd floor along the way back after you come up the escalators. It’s on the left hand side walking toward the ship. They have some pretty good prices on tee’s, trinkets, wooden items and so on. Sakari always stops and gets one of those little wooden carved “animals” that has the head that bobbles. So we stopped to get her one (she picked the Dragon this time).

 

I noticed my husband was checking out the tees and I went over and thought about getting a new “Cozumel” shirt. There are so many to choose from. I was looking at them all and I would pull a shirt off the stack and hold it up (to see what was on it and for sizing). There is a lady that works there and as soon as you put the shirt down, she was right there picking it up and refolding it and putting it back. It got to the point she was standing beside me the entire time that I was shopping and within a half a second of putting it down, she snatched it up and moved along with me. Um, ok. You talk about making it a “weird” shopping experience. Now some times I like to take a few shirts out and lay them side by side to compare which I like better. Do you think she allowed me to do this? NOPE. She was snatching it up. At one point I told her, “I’m looking at that” and to put it back. Along come my husband. At this point it was becoming REALLY annoying because she was kind of doing it in a snotty way. I walked to different parts of the store and she was following me everywhere. She was so close, she was in my personal space…which makes me a little annoyed and uncomfortable. Finally my husband had had enough and spoke up and said “Do you treat all of your customers like this?”. She just looked at him…”What?”. He said “Do you follow all of your customers around and snatch things up while they are looking at it and not allowing them to shop?”. She had nothing to say. I’m not even sure if she understood the point he was trying to get across. I finally just grabbed a shirt and said I’m done.

 

Then noticed some of the cute shirts along the window hanging up (for Sakari). The previous cruise we got her a tie dyed dolphin, his mouth opens up and you see the inside of the mouth when opened. It’s cute. She wanted a new one. She picked which design she wanted and the color and we looked everywhere for it in the stack. (You talk about a ticked off lady after that). I said “look, if you are not going to let me shop and find what I’m looking for…then you shop for me. I want THAT shirt, in THAT color…find it for me”. She couldn’t find it in the right size. I went over and looked at the one hanging up. “Ok, I’ll take THIS one then” and pointed at the one hanging up in the window. Yep, she removed it for me and we were finally done with our purchase and got the heck out of there. Worse shopping experience EVER.

 

I know sometimes the vendors can be “pushy” trying to get you to come in and “look” but this was a different “kind” of experience. It wasn’t being pushy, it was just plain annoying and if anything would steer someone away from buying anything. I’m persistent though…very persistent when I want something.

 

 

I really had to work for these shirts...you guys should appreciate the dedication I put in to this (trying to get the shirts) which is why I shared. hehe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 5, 2013 by mitsugirly

[mitsugirly]

Time for a little more back tracking.

 

Here’s my problem…my NEW camera records using .mov and my old camera records using .avi.

 

Well, I’ve been trying, researching, and downloading things to help me edit my videos in between this review and finally had some success. When you have something that records in .mov, you can’t edit the video in a Windows editor, which is what I use.

 

With this new camera and the function buttons being different, we got a lot of footage that was “nonsense” and they needed to be edited. On my old camera, you had to go in to the settings and switch to “video” to record. On the new camera, there’s simply a button on the right side that you push and it starts to record. Since we are both right handed, that button got pushed by mistake A LOT.

 

We have a video that is around 18 minutes long of nothing but fins, body parts, water, backs of heads and so on from the video being on and we didn’t know it. Who wants to watch that to get to the “good stuff”???

So, I finally found a program that would change the format from .mov to .avi and have converted my videos and then had to edit them in windows. WHEW!!

 

Now I thought I would share some with you.

 

The first set is from ALMAPLENA.

 

Here is a video, shot down by the beach a little ways (toward the end of Almaplena):

 

Here's a video of the reef that the hubby took. This video was one of the 18 minutes long video of feet and body parts that I had to edit. The entire video he thought he was holding the camera up and taking pictures....WRONG. It was on video, so keep this in mind. But, at least it will show you that there is a reef out there and this was just a small portion at the beginning of it:

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Here is a Bannister Island video of the "hole" in the middle of no where that you need to be aware of:

 

[mitsugirly]

One of the Maya Key birds that could talk:

 

 

 

View of the beach area and a plane going by:

 

 

A little pool fun:

 

[SMSACE6]

Im still following your review and loving every minute of it! thanks so much for taking the time to post it all, and the beautiful photos. Your daughter is adorable!:)

[mitsugirly]

Once again we are out to sea and sad that this was our last port day. We knew this meant that our cruise was almost coming to and end. But hey, the world didn’t end did it? So we felt lucky to still be alive.

Time to prepare for the evening activities after eating and the normal routine or dropping the munchkin off at the kids club for a while and playing some slots.

 

Tonight they were having a Christmas show called “The Holiday Wish”. When we dropped Sakari off at the kids club they mentioned they would be there with the kids. We “thought” they meant they were playing in the show at some point. We watched all of the kids pile in to their section in the Stardust. Man I have to hand it to the kid’s staff…to handle that many kids and keep everything organized, they do a WONDERFUL job! I know I could never have the patience to do what they do and they do it so well. I did notice that when the show started, Sakari was sitting on one of the counselors lap and remained there the entire show. Hmmm, I wasn’t sure what that was about.

 

 

The show started. They had some wonderful dancers and singing about Christmas. I’m not really sure it was a “kid” oriented Christmas show or that they would completely understand. Off the top of my head I can’t remember the specifics, but there was several times that I thought to myself that the kids wouldn’t understand the meaning behind what just happened.

 

 

 

After the show we headed back to the room for some reason. I’m not sure why, we never do this. But something geared us that way. Within 5 minutes of being in the room, the phone rang and it was the kids club telling us that Sakari wasn’t feeling well and she said she wanted to go to sleep because she was tired. The hubby went down to pick her up. Maybe that was the reason she was sitting on the counselors lap that night.

 

When they returned to the room, she was wide-awake and said she wasn’t tired. I ask why she was sitting on the counselors lap and she said that she couldn’t see the show. So, I’m not sure. I can tell you that the ship was ROCKING tonight…really rocking. We would later find out (the following day) that we had 15-foot waves that night. Maybe it was making her a little sick, but she wouldn’t admit it.

 

I also have to mention that a few days earlier I had received a call from the head person at Versailles saying he would like to speak with me about the “Taste of India” comment that I had at the meet & greet. When I would call him back, I would get a busy signal. He was persistent though and we finally connected tonight. He had told me that they wanted to make up for not having the Taste of India by treating us to an Indian meal at Versailles or where ever we wanted whenever we wanted. How nice! I told him about the shows that we wanted to see tomorrow and we agreed that we would come straight from the Elements show Saturday night to Versailles for this special meal. I thought it was so nice that they would do this for me. He was so flexible. He told me they would serve us the meal at any of the restaurants we wanted and would even do it in our room if we wanted. We could pick any time that we wanted…even if the dining area was closed at that time. Now you talk about customer service. WAY TO GO NCL!!! Now this is what we are use to. A staff that not only is friendly, but they go out of their way to make your cruise enjoyable and one to remember. This is the NCL staff that I have come to love and one of the main reasons why we cruise with them…the staff!

 

Santa had left Sakari the usual 2 mints on our pillows and a towel frog tonight:

 

 

 

 

It was time for my nightly shower and I noticed that I no longer had a floor towel mat tonight. Man I must have really pissed off the room steward. He has managed to reduce the amount of towels and wash rags throughout the cruise, now I no longer have a floor towel mat. But this wasn’t going to bring me down. We were happy as can be that night and went to bed looking forward to the next day.

 

 

(Sakari wasn't tired or sick...so she says, but by the time I got out of the shower...she was sound asleep). :p

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Im still following your review and loving every minute of it! thanks so much for taking the time to post it all, and the beautiful photos. Your daughter is adorable!:)

 

Thanks so much and thank you for still sticking around. I know this review is getting really long and hopefully I haven't lost too many people with it. :p

[bluehawks47]

Thank you soooo much for your review. It is awesome!! We will be on the Star for the March 10th sailing.

I love your link to the dailies....thank you. I love planning ahead also.

I may have missed it, but do you have a picture of the menus for each night? We would like to make reservations for one of the "pay" restaurants, but we don't want to miss lobster night or one of the other special nights.

Thanks again for your wonderfully detailed review.

Kathleen

PS your daughter is beautiful :)

[kenb]

Abolutely not! I am on the 3/3 cruise and have absolutely enjoyed your review and pictures.

I do have to ask, how do you get pictures without a lot of people in the picture?

[mitsugirly]

Thank you soooo much for your review. It is awesome!! We will be on the Star for the March 10th sailing.

I love your link to the dailies....thank you. I love planning ahead also.

I may have missed it, but do you have a picture of the menus for each night? We would like to make reservations for one of the "pay" restaurants, but we don't want to miss lobster night or one of the other special nights.

Thanks again for your wonderfully detailed review.

Kathleen

PS your daughter is beautiful :)

 

I'm sorry, I didn't take pictures of the menus.

 

Lobster night is the very first night...the night that you board the ship. It's the only night they have it. So as long as you are not planning one of the specialty restaurants that night, you will be ok. All of the other specialty restaurants are open every night so you are free to plan what you want when you want. There are t.v. screens up all over the ship that will show you times available, when they are filling up and so on. :)

[mitsugirly]

Abolutely not! I am on the 3/3 cruise and have absolutely enjoyed your review and pictures.

I do have to ask, how do you get pictures without a lot of people in the picture?

 

A lot of the pictures were taken when we first boarded the ship on the first day before everyone was on board (ship pictures of course). The others, I'm not sure. I just always manage to look around and take pictures when there isn't a lot of people around. :D It's all about the timing and taking full advantage of the opportunity when you see it. :p